Mortgage default has long term impacts on the financial wellbeing of households including bankruptcy, drawing on superannuation savings, and high levels of debt even after the sale of the house. Better access by borrowers to financial advice and mortgage relief assistance, as well as stricter lending standards and better consideration of illness and hardship by...

This is the second and final report on the problem of mortgage default in Australia. An earlier positioning paper (Berry et al., 2009) presented, in detail, a range of issues, views, evidence and potential policy directions concerning this subject. Both reports are to be read as one.

The Australian housing system has undergone major structural change in the past 20 years. Continuing population growth, falling average household size, strong economic growth and rising average incomes have underpinned buoyant demand for housing focused on metropolitan areas, smaller provincial cities, natural resource centres and tourist regions. Increasing income and wealth inequalities have changed patterns...

This is the first Australian study to bring together the international evidence about the cost of homelessness across key government service areas as well as to societies and individuals - and the benefits achieved by intervening to prevent homelessness. On any one night the number of homeless in Australia is estimated at 60,000 to 105,000...

Death from heroin overdose, in particular, rivals the road toll in destroying lives, especially among young Australians. This report is based on intensive fieldwork in three study areas: inner Melbourne (Fitzroy-Collingwood); Geelong and Sydney (Fairfield-Cabramatta). These areas have been carefully chosen to include an inner region of a capital city, a regional city and an...